Tour de France 2014: stage 5 – in pictures

Everyone knew what awaited them – the forecasts, unlike the weather, had been clear: it was to be a wet day on the cobbles. The first time the Tour de France had ventured over them in the rain since 1980. A momentous day for the GC riders saw Vincenzo Nibali display a hitherto untested talent for the cobblestones, while Alberto Contador displayed the opposite – losing minutes to the Italian

Despite never racing Paris-Roubaix, Nibali is undoubtedly one of the best bike handlers in the peloton. This showed through on his debut on the cobblestones – here he leads three-time Roubaix winner Fabian Cancellara